Our passage this morning is from Luke chapter 23, verses 26 through 43. And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus. And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them, Jesus said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nurse. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place that is called the skull there, they crucified him and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by watching, but the ruler scoffed at him, saying, He saved others, let him save himself. If he is the Christ of God, his chosen one. The soldiers mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him. This is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. Father, we come this morning to sing how great you are. You are worthy of all our praise. And we thank you that we can gather and worship you and that we can now hear from you, from your word. So we pray that you would speak to us from your word this morning. You would teach us, you would correct us, you would rebuke us, you would encourage us in whatever we need. Do that for us this morning, Father. But in the end, would you help us to love you more and to continue to bring you all the glory that is due your name. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. You can be seated. Well, we have spent a little bit of time in the gospel according to Luke, a year and a half or so. Nobody's counting. Of course, the last year feels like about 10 years, doesn't it? And we've spent time in Luke because we wanted to have in focus Jesus, the Savior of the world. As we've studied this gospel according to Luke, we have seen the miraculous birth of Jesus. We've seen his baptisms. We've seen his miracles. We've heard his authoritative teaching. We've watched as he poured out his sweet and tender mercy on the sick and the hurting. We watched as he poured out his grace on sinners. We've listened to His rebuke of the self-righteous religious people. We've marveled at His obedience to the Father's will. And now, we're walking through His last days, days that are filled with betrayal and tears and arrest and suffering and crucifixion and death. These last days, they're painful. for Jesus, but they're not a surprise to him. As we've seen the last couple of weeks, he is in complete and total control. He has submitted himself to his heavenly Father and doing the Father's will. Now, yes, part of that is to suffer on the cross, to be nailed to the cross. I think for most of us, every time we read this account of the crucifixion, it is hard because we know that Jesus is innocent, that this is not fair, this is unjust. Even the criminal, as we'll see, he knows that Jesus is innocent. He knows that Jesus should not be suffering on the cross like him. But there Jesus will hang and suffer. I don't always suffer very well. Sometimes when things are difficult for me, many times, I get a little too self-focused. I get a little lost in my own world and all I can think about is when will this trial or when will this suffering just end? I just want it to be over. I want to get back to my life. I don't know about you, well I do know some of you, you can't even handle a little cold. It's hard, right? We just get so low. I mean, I remember sitting in the hospital after my appendix ruptured and just world, the world just comes into me. I can't think of anything else but me. I just need to get out of this place. This needs to be over. I don't like this pain and the suffering. I've become so self-focused. And I know for me, over the last year or so in this pandemic, that it's been the same. I have spent so much time thinking about me, myself, and I. Can this just get over? Can I just move on with life as I want to live? I thought I was doing well and moving away from being selfish, I don't think that's true. I have a long way to go. And then I come to this passage, and I read this passage, and I study this passage, and I am struck by the selflessness of Christ, that in the midst of His suffering, His focus is not on Himself. He is so fully focused on others, on us even. And so as we will see Jesus walk to the cross, be crucified and hang there, We're going to see his love in bright shining lights as he does three things. First, he warns of coming judgment. Second, he prays for the forgiveness of his enemies. And third, he graciously grants salvation to a criminal. So first, the warning. Luke picks up the story of the last days of Jesus with Jesus on his way to a place called the skull. Nothing good can happen at the skull. It's probably shaped like a skull, which is why it has that name. So he's on his way there, and it would be normal that the one being crucified would have to carry part of the cross. But Jesus is in such bad shape from being beaten and whipped that he can't do it. And so the soldiers grab Simon of Cyrene to have to carry the cross the rest of the way. Now, when you first read that, you could think, oh, poor Simon. Simon has to now bear the cross that this man Jesus is supposed to bear, but I wouldn't feel sorry for Simon. See, I think this is the front row seat that Simon got to have that led him to trust in Jesus. How do we know that? Well, two ways. Just the way Luke describes him here, by name, who he was, he seems known by Luke. But even more so in the Gospel according to Mark, Mark mentions Simon's two sons, Alexander and Rufus. So it seems that here's Simon, even though he has to bear this cross that Jesus was supposed to carry, that it's what God used to open his eyes to who Jesus was. His front row seat led him to faith, and his family has changed forever. But here's Jesus going up to be crucified, and as he goes, a large crowd is following. But the focus Luke has is not just on the crowd, but it's on the women who were following, who were mourning and lamenting for him. If you've read through with us in the gospel according to Luke, you will see women are so important to Luke because they're so important to Jesus. And here again, we see women right at the front. Last week we saw Peter deny Christ and walk away, but here these women are with him and they are mourning and they are weeping. It is visible and audible, very normal in that part of the world to mourn very loudly and visibly. Maybe you even, when you read the account of the crucifixion, you feel in your own heart this sadness, this mourning come that the innocent one is dying. He should not be put on the cross. But here, Jesus does not want the women to weep for him. Jesus does not need any sympathy. He knows what he's doing. He's completely in control. And so he looks at these women, loving them. And he says, your mourning is misplaced. Your mourning is misplaced. Here's the first moment we see as Jesus is suffering about to be nailed to the cross. He's not thinking about his own situation. He's thinking about these women that are mourning. He's looking at them with love and care and compassion. And he warns them that there is coming judgment for sin. They don't need to weep for him. He chose this path. He's in obedience to the Father. He knows what the end result will be, which is why the writer of Hebrews says, So you don't need to weep for Jesus. He says, no, you need to weep for yourselves. Because if you are in sin, God is going to bring judgment upon you. This is what verse 31, what he's talking about. Jesus is suffering. He's gonna go to the cross and He's gonna die. Even though He's innocent, He's the Greenwood. And if God will pour out His wrath for Christ to take on our behalf, what is going to happen for those who are still dead in their sins, the dry wood? No sinner will be able to stand under God's judgment. No one can stand under God's judgment. And so Jesus, at the very end of His life, He desires that others would understand that they should weep for their sin, because it's their sin that they will have to deal with when God brings His wrath. Jesus knew what it was to bear the weight of God's wrath. It's what He was doing on the way to the cross and what He would do on the cross. And for anyone who does not trust in Jesus to take God's wrath upon them, they will face the judgment and the wrath of God. And Jesus gives a warning, now is the time to mourn over your sin, to repent from your sin and to trust in me. Now, this warning of coming judgment happens in two phases. First, in AD 70 in Jerusalem, Jerusalem gets wiped out. And so in a sense, there is this very close judgment that is coming on the nation for what they have done to the Savior, the Son of God. But there's the fullness of God's wrath still to come. When Christ returns, He will come as the judge, and He will come to judge and bring punishment and wrath on sin. Right now, He has come to save. And Jesus is warning, when I return, there will be judgment. Repent and trust in me. He wants these women to mourn over their sin so that they don't face the wrath of God. The wrath of God is not a popular subject. Many think God has no wrath. He's never a judge. He's only loving, just kind of lets sin go, but that's not the case. God's wrath is real. And when it gets poured out, it is horrendous. Jesus warns in here that it is going to be so bad that when God's wrath were to come, people will cry out to the mountains to fall on them, because it would be better to be crushed by the mountains than to stand under the wrath of God being poured on top of them. Jesus marches to his death, and yet he's concerned about these women. He's concerned about all who hear him, all who will read this account, that God's judgment is coming. God will judge sin. We know that is the case because of what Jesus is about to do. He is about to go to the cross and take on the sin of the world because God must judge sin in God's holiness and righteousness. And so these women, any who are reading this, have a choice. face God's judgment, or trust that Christ has faced it for you, that He took on God's wrath so that you could be forgiven, you could have the escape from God's wrath through His salvation in Christ. Jesus can bear that wrath for these women, and He can bear that wrath for us, and for you who have trusted Christ, He has borne that wrath. He loves these women. He warns them. of the coming judgment. But not only does he warn, he seeks forgiveness for others. So Luke continues this story in verses 32 through 38. We're introduced to the criminals who are going to be crucified next to him. They're hung, nailed to the cross. So they're finally on the cross now, which continues the excruciating pain that Jesus and the criminals are all facing. Jesus was already beaten to the point where he couldn't carry the cross. And now He's nailed to the cross where He will slowly die a painful death. This is the payment for sin. It is death. If Jesus takes on our sin, He must die. And so He will. but he's innocent. Pilate tried to steer the Jews away from crucifying Jesus, but they were bloodthirsty. They wanted him dead, so much so that they were willing to let a murderer go free to put Jesus on the cross. And they must be thinking, our plan has worked. Our plan has worked. There he is on the cross. We're about to be rid of this Jesus character. except they're not calling the shots. They're not in control. Jesus is in full control. Yes, He is a man. He is feeling every bit of the pain of crucifixion, but He is fully God. And He could, at that moment, have called on His heavenly Father, sent legions of angels to bring judgment on the sin of the Jewish leaders and the Roman countryside. He could have called on God to bring judgment and His wrath on that sin. But that's not what Jesus does. I mean, that's a normal response, isn't it? Even His disciples, you remember back in Luke earlier when He's rejected, when Jesus is rejected by the Samaritan town, what did His disciples say? Jesus, should we call down fire from heaven? I mean, they're ready. Bring the thunder and the pain to those who reject you. And yet Jesus, instead of calling down judgment, Jesus follows his own teaching and he loves his enemies and he prays for their forgiveness. I hope when you read verse 34, that the shock of this does not pass you by, that you allow yourself to pause and think about what he prays. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. These are the very people who persuaded Pilate to put Him to death, who want Him on the cross and now will mock Him while He's on the cross, and He prays for their forgiveness. They don't know the fullness of what they're doing. They should have known. They should have understood who Jesus was, but they don't fully understand that they are crucifying God in the flesh, and yet Jesus asks, His Heavenly Father to forgive them. Do you remember the young man, Dylan Roof? You do. Dylan Roof was the young man that went into Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and he shot and killed nine people. It was a horrible crime, devastating, heart-wrenching. But I wonder, do you remember what some of the relatives of the victims, how they responded? when their sadness and anger would have seemed rightfully lead them to condemn him for his sin and his crime, hoping that he suffers the just punishment for his crime and his sin. Some instead chose to forgive. Dan Simmons Jr., who is the son of Reverend Simmons, who was killed that day, said this to Dylan Roof, I forgive you. I know that you don't understand that, but God requires me to forgive you. Understand that as you have been judged, know that you have an opportunity to ask for forgiveness. Know that you can change your life. Stay focused. I guarantee if you choose to serve Him, you will have a better life. The path that Dan Simmons Jr. took was the path of Jesus. He chose in that moment to forgive the one who was guilty of murdering his father, because that's what Jesus did on the cross. Now those who forgave Dylann Roof didn't do that just so they would feel better. No, they did that because it's the way of Christ and they wanted to release the person from their life. See, when we don't forgive, it's like we put handcuffs on ourselves and the other person. We lock ourselves to that person forever and ever, holding judgment over them, wishing that they would suffer. And to forgive is to say, no, I'm going to entrust myself to the one who judges justly. and you unlock the handcuffs and you allow them to be under God's judgment, not yours, and you forgive them. This is what Christ is doing here on the cross. As He's suffering at the hands of His murderers, He asked that they would be forgiven. Do you need to forgive someone? Over this past year or so, has anybody made you angry? Anybody disappointed you? Anyone made a decision in which you were really frustrated with? Maybe you stopped talking to someone or pulled away from someone because they just have the wrong view about, I don't know, things like masks or vaccines or politics or justice or on and on. I mean, come on, it's been a hard year, hasn't it? I think we've all felt that way towards someone this last year. I mean, have you ever in your life ever gotten frustrated at a politician? Ever? Yes. Have you ever said, they don't know what they're doing? Yeah. You ever get frustrated with somebody in town, a business owner, somebody else, a brother and sister in Christ? Maybe even get frustrated at the elders of the church. What do you do with your frustration or your hurt or the injustice that's been brought to you? What do you do with that? I've been convicted of this recently. Even before I began to read this passage, God through his spirit has been convicting me about my own complaining heart. my complaining heart about things I don't have control over, and in some cases, things I don't want to follow God on. I want to have my own independent way. I think I know what's right. I'm the judge of the world. If everybody just did things my way, we'd be okay. I've been convicted because in the midst of all that complaining or my anger towards something or someone, I rarely ever prayed for those people, whoever it was. I just sat in judgment. I didn't pray for their forgiveness. See, I got stuck in the meme monster cycle of just thinking about myself. And then I get to this passage, and here is Jesus on the cross, nails in His hands, and He's praying for the forgiveness of His enemies. Who do you need to pray for and ask God to forgive? Who do you need to release and entrust them to the one who judges justly and seek reconciliation? Maybe it's your enemies. Maybe it's just someone that bothers you or annoys you. Maybe it's somebody that's really frustrated you or even somebody that's hurt you. Will you pray for them, that God would forgive them, that they would turn from their sin, that they would be saved? or you choose to continue to sit in judgment. I would like to choose the way of Christ, the way of Dan Simmons, Jr., and to pray for forgiveness. See, when I was not in that mode of forgiveness, asking God to forgive those and pray for those, I saw my own heart and my soul and my mind were being corrupted in so many ways. And I needed to ask for forgiveness from God. and then ask God to forgive others. See, everyone is gonna face the judgment of God. Everyone, even Christians will face the judgment of God. But here in this moment, Jesus did not come to judge, he came to save. Yes, when he returns, he will come to judge and he will execute justice better than we ever could. And so we can entrust him with that for now. We follow the way of Christ and we pray for the forgiveness of our enemies, of those who hurt us. And why? Because what Jesus is doing on the cross is providing our forgiveness. And so what else could we do? And we do it over and over again. Remember in Matthew, when Peter asked, how many times though, how many times? And Jesus says, 70 times seven. Jesus isn't giving a math problem. He's saying, you just keep forgiving. You keep forgiving because I'm gonna keep forgiving you as you confess your sin and you turn from your sin, I'm going to keep forgiving you over and over. And so you do the same with everyone else. It may mean like it does for me, there's somebody in your life that you will continually have to forgive over and over again. But we can, because right here we have forgiveness in what Christ is doing for us. He's paying for our sin. And if we trust in Him, our sin is wiped away. And now we can forgive others and pray that they would experience the same forgiveness that we have because of Christ's work on our behalf on the cross. So Jesus warns of the coming judgment. And then He prays for forgiveness, which would be the rescue away from that coming judgment. Then finally we see that He grants salvation to the least likely person, a criminal. So this is the last section, 39 through 43. We see these two criminals. Now the first criminal falls in line with the rulers and the soldiers who are mocking and scoffing at Jesus. They're yelling out that because he saved others, he should be able to just save himself. What they don't understand is that yes, he could save himself. He could get off the cross right there. But if he saved himself, then sinners would not be saved. And so he has to stay on the cross. There's two interesting things within this mocking of Jesus. The first is that they're right, that Jesus did save others. He saved others physically from sickness and illness and disease. He had miracles, but He saved others by proclaiming the gospel, the kingdom of God. That He was the Messiah who had come to forgive sin and help people be born again. So He was saving others. So their mocking meant to make fun of Him is actually truth. And second, in their mocking, they call Him the Christ. Well, they're right again. He is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is no mere man on the cross. He is God in the flesh. The long-promised fulfillment is here. Christ has come, the Messiah has come. How do we know that? Well, because in this account of Luke, there are all these touch points back to the Old Testament, the prophecies that said who the Messiah would be. Just two for your sake. Isaiah 53, verse 12. Isaiah prophesied, and he was numbered with the transgressors. Well, there he is with two criminals. He's right in between. He's numbered with them. And then you could read Psalm 22. There's several places about the Messiah being mocked and the Messiah being pierced with nails and them giving lots for his garments. All in Psalm 22. See, Luke touches on all of this and clues us to let us know this is the Christ. I mean, it's for all to see there's a sign above the cross that says the King of the Jews. That's right, He is the King of the Jews, but He's also the King of the Gentiles because He's the King of kings and the Lord of lords. So they're mocking Him, they're making fun of Him, yet they're saying truth. Here's this criminal, he's got a front row seat to everything that Jesus has done and is saying, and yet he doesn't see. He doesn't see who Christ really is. All he wants is to get off the cross. He doesn't actually want Jesus. Just get me off the cross. I don't wanna have to suffer anymore. But see, Jesus didn't come just to relieve some temporary suffering. He came to relieve eternal suffering, to die for sinners. And so we have this second criminal, He knows that he deserves to be hanging on the cross. He knows that he has sinned against God and against man, and he deserves to die. Yet he knows Jesus is innocent. He has done nothing wrong. It's in this moment that this criminal's eyes are open to who Jesus is. And he comes to faith. How do we know? Verse 42. He asked Jesus a simple question, a simple request. Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He believed that Jesus was the Christ. He had faith that his sins could be forgiven and that he could have intimacy with Jesus. Now, he expected to die. The criminal didn't expect Jesus to take him off the cross right there. He thought he's going to die. And he didn't even ask to be saved right now. He asked Jesus, when you return, will you remember me? See, that's how we know he understands who Christ is. He believes because he knows Jesus will return to bring the fullness of the kingdom. And when Jesus returns, this criminal says, will you just remember me? When you come in your kingdom, I just want to be a part of your kingdom one day. See, He sees who Jesus truly is. But see, He's hanging next to the Son of God, the Messiah, the King of Kings, the Savior of the world, who is not going to save Him later. You're just going to save him right now, immediately. See, this is the beautiful exchange that's happening. Do you see it? Right before your very eyes, the sin of the criminal is being transferred to Christ, paying for it on the cross, and the righteousness of the innocent Messiah, the Son of God, is being given to the criminal who's hanging next to him. He's being saved right before our eyes. And how do we know it? Verse 43, Jesus says, today you will be with me in paradise. Paradise is just another way to say heaven. You're gonna be with me in paradise, but don't get stuck on him going to be in paradise. That's not the main point. I mean, who really would want to live forever without Christ? I don't. The point is that Jesus says, you will be with me, with me today in that moment as he hangs on the cross, his life is now hidden in Christ. He is united to Christ. Right then and there, can you imagine the joy that this criminal must have felt. Yes, he's going to suffer and die on the cross. He will not be relieved of that suffering, but he's saved. He's forgiven of his sin. The wrath of God that was being poured out on him is now being poured out on Christ. And he has this joy that he's with Jesus for all of eternity. Do you have the joy of your salvation? Do you have the joy of your salvation? If you have trusted in Christ, then you are with Him today. You are saved today, and He will never leave you or forsake you. No matter what comes your way, you will always be with Him. And you're a brother and sister with a criminal who's been redeemed. And who's with? Jesus. Do you have that joy? Or is something robbing you of the joy? Are your eyes focused so inwardly that you can't see the beauty of what Christ has done for you? If so, then let me encourage you to preach the good news to yourself again and again. Ask God that he would restore to you the joy of your salvation. Jesus said in John 15, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full, that your joy may be full. As Christ is suffering on the cross, He is thinking of others. He's caring about us, that we would be saved from the coming wrath of God, that we would be forgiven of our sins, and we would be brought in by grace into relationship with Him today. Salvation is today. It was for the joy set before Jesus that He endured the cross. and we have the joy of our salvation in light of our suffering Savior, then it's that same joy that allows us to endure anything, to live a life of forgiveness, to warn others that judgment is coming, but they too can have this joy of salvation. It's the way of Jesus. So we don't cry for Jesus on the cross. We don't weep for Him. We rejoice because what He is doing on the cross and what He is saying on the cross, if you have trusted in Christ, it's true of you. You're forgiven. God's wrath will not be poured out on you. And you are with Jesus today. That is something to rejoice over. Father, we give you all the praise and the glory and the honor for the work of Christ on our behalf. When you should have poured out your wrath on us because of our sin, yet when we were your enemies, you sent Christ to live the life we couldn't live, to die on the cross, though he was innocent, taking on our sin so that we would not have to face your wrath, so that we could be forgiven and that we could be saved the moment we trusted in him. We thank you, Father. Restore to us the joy of our salvation. Restore to us the joy of our salvation. We ask and pray it in the name of Jesus. Amen.